Belief about Jesus the difference between Sabbath, Lord’s Day, he says
Detroit — Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron addressed the Jewish congregation of Detroit’s Temple Beth El Jan. 25 in a show of interfaith goodwill between Catholics and Jews in southeast Michigan he called only “the latest fruit of the remarkable reconciliation between the Children of Abraham and the Disciples of Jesus of Nazareth that has come to pass since the middle of last century.”
The archbishop’s talk during the Sabbath gathering was at the invitation of Rabbi Daniel Syme and came just a few months after the archbishop participated in a pair of well-attended public discussions with Rabbi Joseph Krakoff of Southfield’s Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
During his talk at Temple Beth El, Archbishop Vigneron pointed out the efforts of the Second Vatican Council toward fostering respect and reconciliation between the two Abrahamic faiths.
He also pointed out the council’s insistence that the traditional seven-day calendar include a day set aside for God, a point on which Jews and Christians agree.
“The week of seven days, with one of these dedicated to the Creator of days, is one of those elements that make up the ‘the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews,’” he told the Jewish congregation.
The archbishop acknowledged the shared origin of the belief in a seven-day week, which comes from the creation story in Genesis, and the day consecrated to God as following from the Lord’s own rest on the seventh day after His work of creation.
“The seventh day is not one more in the series, indistinguishable from the other six, but rather serves to consummate them, and thereby gives the seven-day week its specific character,” Archbishop Vigneron told the congregation.
The archbishop acknowledged the primary difference between Christians and Jews over “the day that consummates the week” — that Jews observe Saturday and while Christians observe Sunday.
He explained that for Christians, moving the observance to the first day of the week, “the Lord’s Day,” was “both logical and right” because of the belief in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week.
“What specifically distinguishes my community from yours is that we believe that in this event God’s work of creation and salvation has come to its fulfillment,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “This, again, is a case of our shared spiritual patrimony appropriated differently, according to what we believe about Jesus.”
While the day regarded as holy is different between the two faiths, Archbishop Vigneron said, challenges in honoring it exist for both.
“While many in our community are prosperous enough to enjoy the leisure proper to free men and women, there are many for whom this is not the case,” he said, referring to the working poor. “For them the work they must do and the hours they must devote to it are oppressive. The rest that belongs to seventh day would be for them an oasis of liberty. And our keeping that day holy is a lesson to all that they deserve it.”
He said many people who aren’t bound by need still choose to work on the Sabbath or Lord’s Day out of “bondage to technology, a master whose dominion is so potent that they feel bound always to be at work because their laptop or cellphone makes that possible.”
“On the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day, we Jews and Christians can show them that they are not slaves to such technology. Put simply, we can teach them to turn it off and just be human.”
He thanked the Jewish congregation for their “acts of kindness” that allow Christians to celebrate holy days such as Christmas, and said he would ask the Catholic community to return the favor.
“The crowning of our week by the seventh day is our attestation about what time is, who we are, and who God is,” the archbishop said. “Therefore, the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day are schools to teach others to be human.”
